


Medicine

by mshakarios



Series: Table For Three (Themmus Fics) [4]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Fatherhood, M/M, Testosterone shots, Trans Male Character, blink and you'll miss it angst, explaining trans identity to a kid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-04 18:22:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15152972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mshakarios/pseuds/mshakarios
Summary: Seven-year-old Norius has a question for his father. Emmett tries his best to answer it.(Fluff and father/son bonding, simplified explanations of trans concepts to a kid, pairing is Thane/Emmett/Garrus but it's barely mentioned)





	Medicine

**Author's Note:**

> Em probably shouldn't be doing his T shot in the kitchen. But hey, it's the future; everything's sterile, right? Whatever. Don't think about it too hard.
> 
> Some oversimplified explanations of trans identity, since Em's explaining this to a seven-year-old. Canon divergence, clearly, since Thane's still alive at this point. Brief mentions of his Kepral's, but nothing too angsty. Pairing is T/E/G but it doesn't really come up; this one's mostly about Em and little Nori.

“Papa?” The little boy pipes up suddenly from the chair beside him, interrupting him before the needle can make contact with his thigh. Emmett pauses and turns to his son.

“Yeah, Nori? What’s up?”

“Why do you….” Norius searches for the right words, his subvocals humming in that specific way that Emmett has come to know as a sign of nervousness. “Poke yourself? You do it a lot. What’s it for?”

Emmett smiles at the young boy, bringing one hand up and resting it on his arm gently. 

“It’s just medicine. It’s nothing to worry about; I know it looks scary, but I’ve been taking it since I was a teenager.”

“Why’s it in that stick? Why do you have to poke yourself with it? I thought medicine was pills.” 

“Yeah, Nor, I take pills, too. But there’s different kinds of medicine. This one needs to go into my muscles.”

“What’s it do?”

“It’s….hard to explain. But I’ll try my best.” Emmett pauses for a second, setting the needle down on the counter in front of him. “Nori, some boys....don’t know that they’re boys when they’re little. And some girls don’t know they’re girls. The doctor tells them that they’re either a boy or a girl when they're born, but sometimes, the doctor just….ends up being wrong. And they don’t realize the doctor was wrong until they’re older.”

“How old?”

“Well, it’s different for different people. Sometimes they realize when they’re kids like you, sometimes when they’re teenagers, and sometimes they don’t figure it out until they’re grown-ups. Everyone’s different. Some boys get called girls when they’re little, some girls get called boys, and some people get called one or the other, and end up realizing that they aren’t boys _or_ girls.”

“So….why do you poke yourself with medicine?”

“Well, Nori, when I was born, the doctors said I was a girl.”

“That’s silly! They were wrong!” Norius looks at his father, at his thick, masculine build and at the weird thick bristles on his face that he’s pretty sure human males are supposed to have, and tries to wrap his mind around the concept of anyone mistaking his Papa for a girl. Emmett chuckles.

“Yeah, buddy, they were wrong. I was really a boy. But my body still didn’t match up with me being a boy. I still looked like a girl, even though I wasn’t one. So I started taking this medicine, when I was a teenager. It….helps my body match the rest of me. So I can look right and feel good about myself. Does that make sense?”

“I think so….” Norius is silent for a moment, and his mandibles wiggle slightly as he processes the information. “What about Dad and Daddy?”

“What about ‘em?”

“I see Dad take weird medicine too, sometimes. Did they mess up and call him a girl, too?”

“Oh. Nah, Dad and Daddy were both luckier than me. They got it right with them; the doctors said they were boys when they were born, and they turned out to really be boys. Your Dad just...” He trails off and takes a deep breath, unsure of how to explain his husband’s condition to a seven-year-old. “Your Dad has to take special medicine so he can breathe right.” 

“Why can’t he breathe right?!” 

Emmett winces at the alarm in his son’s voice, and lays a reassuring hand on his carapace.

“Just….don’t worry about it, Nori. Dad’s fine. You don’t need to worry about him.” He tries his best to sound convincing, hiding any noticeable sign of his own worry for Thane. “He’ll tell you more about it when you’re older. Just know that it’s under control. Dad’s not going anywhere; just forget I brought it up.”

“Okay….” Norius nods, though his tiny mandibles give one more worried flicker. Both father and son sit in silence for another long moment. Finally, Norius looks over at the syringe, then back up at Emmett. “Do you need to poke yourself now, Papa?”

Emmett chuckles.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Can I watch?” 

The young boy’s voice is suddenly filled with morbid curiosity, and he leans in closer, almost falling out of his chair trying to inspect the partially-full vial of testosterone and readied syringe resting on the kitchen counter. Emmett snorts with amusement, one strong arm coming up to grab hold of his son before he falls.

“Yeah, buddy, you sure can.”


End file.
